Current and former national captains, Alyssa Healy and Meg Lanning, are among the 22 Australians who will be vying for a spot in the Women’s Premier League (WPL) on Thursday as the Indian competition hosts its first mega player auction since its inaugural season in 2023.

Megan Schutt, Sophie Molineux and Tahlia McGrath are notable absentees, while quick Darcie Brown is looking to find her first home in the tournament.

Jess Jonassen withdrew from the auction hours before the event, reportedly to manage an injury concern.

Australians in the WPL mega auction

 

Reserve price INR 50 lakh (A$86,000): Alyssa Healy, Meg Lanning, Phoebe Litchfield, Kim Garth, Georgia Wareham, Heather Graham

 

Reserve price INR 40 lakh (A$69,000): Georgia Voll, Alana King

 

Reserve price INR 30 lakh (A$52,000): Grace Harris, Darcie Brown, Lauren Cheatle, Amanda-Jade Wellington, Nicola Carey 

 

Reserve price INR 10 lakh (A$17,200): Milly Illingworth, Laura Harris, Nicole Faltum, Georgia Redmayne, Courtney Webb, Samantha Bates, Sophie Day, Lucy Hamilton, Charli Knott

The auction will be held in New Delhi at 3.30pm local time (9pm AEDT).

The WPL’s five teams will bear a new look come the next season, having been forced into a reset with only a maximum of five players permitted to be retained.

Additional conditions, which restricted teams to a total of two overseas retentions and mandated the retention of an uncapped Indian player if all five spots were used, further made it difficult for the franchises to keep their core intact.

Four Aussies featured in the retention lists that were revealed earlier in the month. Gujarat Giants held on to their captain Ashleigh Gardner as well as Beth Mooney, while allrounders Ellyse Perry and Annabel Sutherland were retained by their respective sides – Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) and Delhi Capitals.

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A total of 277 players are listed to go under the hammer in the auction (194 Indian players and 83 from overseas). There are 73 vacant spots for the five sides to fill and a maximum of 23 can be claimed by overseas players.

The teams are required to have a minimum of 15 players on their roster, with maximum list sizes up to 18.

The BCCI had earlier pushed its plan to introduce a sixth team to the competition from 2026 to 2028.

In a first for the league, teams will be able to use a Right-to-Match (RTM) card to match the highest bid for a player on their 2025 roster. The number of RTMs available will be the same as the unused spots from the five available retention picks for each side.

As the auction falls in the middle of Weber WBBL|11, performances in recent weeks are bound to be top of mind during Thursday’s auction.

Lanning, likely to be a sought-after name, would have raised her value even higher with her incredible run of form throughout the first half of the WBBL|11.

With 327 runs in seven games, the Melbourne Stars veteran is sitting at the top of the run-scoring tally and her knock of 135 off 74 balls against the Sydney Sixers would be fresh in the memories of bid makers.

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Lanning, who started the season with scores of 60 and 90no, revealed that she has evolved her game to be more aggressive and play with more freedom.

“I want to dominate,” were her words that would be music to the ears of any T20 franchise owner.

After leading the Delhi Capitals to the finals of the first three seasons, Lanning was let go by the franchise as they opted to use their overseas spots for allrounders Sutherland and Marizanne Kapp.

But with the next mega auction cycle being smaller – two years instead of three – the Capitals might be tempted to bring Lanning back to guide the next leader and ease them into the role. However, with the smallest purse of all sides, it will be a challenging feat to secure the five-time World Cup winning captain.

Lanning will be one of the first to go under the hammer as part of an eight-player in the marquee list. Joining her in the opening set is Healy, who has had vastly contrasting fortunes in WBBL|11.

Entering the tournament with a thumb injury carried from the World Cup, the Sydney Sixers wicketkeeper-batter sat out the start of the tournament. On her return to the playing XI, she was moved down from the opening spot to No.3 and has struggled so far.

Captain of the UP Warriorz in the first two seasons, Healy skipped the WPL this year to focus on her recovery following the multi-format Ashes series. Her extended period of managing several injuries might hamper the Australian skipper’s chances of attracting a big bid.

Coming up early in the auction could also go against her if franchises look to save their purses and overseas slots to round out their squads with the required personnel towards the end of the day.

Healy’s Australian opening partner Phoebe Litchfield is however a near-certainty to set off bidding war going in the Indian capital. While the 22-year-old doesn’t have a big WPL season under her belt yet, she has established herself as one of the brightest stars in the making in the women’s game.

This year has seen the youngster develop a fearless game boasting of unconventional but highly productive stroke play. The switch hits she gave a glimpse of in the Ashes became her weapon of choice in The Hundred, where she reaped 292 runs from 10 innings at strike rate of 158.

Now in her second year as the captain of Sydney Thunder, Litchfield’s leadership credentials could also put her on several teams’ radar.

Equally high in demand would be Georgia Wareham, who has been a top performer at WBBL|11, contributing to Melbourne Renegades’ strong start with both bat and ball. After six games, she is her side’s leading run-scorer, and her leg-spin has produced 12 wickets – the second most in the competition – at a miserly economy of 4.95.

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However, Wareham will have to wait for her named to come up in the auction, finding herself in the 23rd set – the third round of internationally-capped allrounders.

Despite having a quiet WBBL so far, Alana King and Georgia Voll are also likely to generate interest. Both Australian internationals played for the UP Warriorz in 2025 and could be brought back by the side using their RTM cards after letting go of all their capped players.

Nicola Carey could prove to be a dark horse and sneak into one of the available spots. The allrounder has regularly chipped in with the bat for the Hobart Hurricanes this season – and Tasmania in the WNCL – while also upping her scoring rate and has been ever-consistent with her medium-pace bowling.

It will be hard for the WPL franchises to look past Lizelle Lee this time around. The former South African international, who now plays as a local player in the WBBL, has been at her destructive best for the Hurricanes over the past two seasons and became the first player to hit consecutive centuries in the tournament in WBBL|10.

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Equally good has been the form of her opening partner, England’s Danni Wyatt-Hodge, who is closely trailing Lanning on the WBBL|11 runs tally. Wyatt-Hodge has previously been a member of RCB’s squad.

Her England teammate Sophie Ecclestone, who is plying her trade for Adelaide Strikers this season, was another one of UP Warriorz’ high-profile releases. The world’s top-ranked bowler in ODIs could be one of the biggest winners of the auction.

The current record for the highest-paid player in the WPL is held by star Indian batter Smriti Mandhana, who was secured by RCB for INR 3.4 crore (A$593,000) in 2023, while Gardner holds that distinction for overseas players with her price of INR 3.2 crore (A$558,000).

That record could be broken this time with an increased total purse amount. In the mix will be several members of India’s World Cup winning side, including allrounder Deepti Sharma.